Drugs from animal sources

Traditionally, medicinal lead structures have originated from plant, microbial fermentation, and animal sources. Most new drug candidates today are identified through four approaches ... 

Homeopathic drugs are produced from natural substances such as plant materials, animal sources, minerals, diseased parts of man etc. They are also produced from the diluent medium of aqueous ethanol exposed to ionizing radiation. Remedies of plant and animal sources are named according to the binomial nomenclature introduced by Linnaeus (1753). 

Many over-the-counter drugs contain melatonin. Some of these products are made from animal sources. However, most commercially available melatonin is synthetic. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved several methods for the extraction of pollutants from environmental samples. These standard methods are listed under EPA publication SW-846, Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste Physical/Chemical Methods [1], Many of them were approved only in the last decade. Automated Soxhlet was promulgated in 1994, SFE and ASE in 1996, and MAE in 2000. The Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) has published its own standard extraction methods for the food, animal feed, drug, and cosmetics industries [2], Some extraction methods have also been approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) [3], Table 3.1 summarizes the standard methods from various sources. 

The list of potentially hazardous materials includes drugs, food additives, preservatives, ores, pesticides, dyes, detergents, lubricants, soaps, plastics, extracts from plant and animal sources, plants and animals that are toxic by contact or consumption, and industrial intermediates and waste products from production processes. Some of the information refers to materials of undefined composition. The chemicals included are assumed to exhibit the reported toxic effect in their pure state unless otherwise noted. However, even in the case of a supposedly pure chemical, there is usually some degree of uncertainty as to its exact composition and the impurities that may be present. This possibility must be considered in attempting to interpret the data presented because the toxic effects observed could in some cases be caused by a contaminant. Some radioactive materials are included but the effect reported is the chemically produced effect rather than the radiation effect. 

Each year. Salmonella and other enteric organisms isolates are obtained from animal and human sources and their susceptibilities are tested to approximately 17 drugs of human importance. The human samples are collected from sick people. The animal isolates come from healthy farm animals, animal clinical specimens, carcasses of food animals at slaughter, ground products at processing plants, and retail meat samples collected from grocery stores and shops that... 

The foregoing section indicates some reasons why peptide-based drugs are needed. If a peptide hormone is not produced in sufficient quantities or is defective in structure, then a replacement is required. Peptides, especially very small molecules, have a very short half life in the body. The reason for this is the ubiquitous occurrence of proteolytic enzymes that effect hydrolysis of peptides to the constituent amino acids. Although longer peptides, especially those with structural features such as disulphide bonds, survive longer in vivo, they are more likely to stimulate the body s immune system to produce antibodies and effect removal of the peptides. This is particularly likely to occur with molecules that differ structurally from the naturally occurring hormones. Thus, treatment of juvenile-onset diabetes mellitus with insulins from animal sources can occasionally stimulate the patient s immune system... 

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